Blue Blue Eyes: Crime Novel (24 page)

Tuesday June 11th

The next morning Nikki was woken up by cats fighting on the street. Confused she took her mobile out and checked the time. A quarter past six. Yawning she put her head back on the pillow. The thoughts about Patrik’s disappearance together with her bad conscience and worrying about Linn was eating into her like an open wound. Patrik would never stay away on his own free will without contacting his family. Something was wrong. Really wrong. The pain from the swelling throbbed and Nikki sighed tiredly.

She realized how lucky she was not to be more badly injured than this. Then she thought of Rick with gratitude. What the hell would have happened if he hadn’t come to the rescue? The questions were whirling around in her sore head and Nikki lay down on her side. She noticed the bunch of papers lying in the transparent plastic file. Damn it, I completely forgot the prints from Sten’s and Karl’s emails, she thought while putting her feet down on the floor.

Her muscles were sore. She longed for a relaxing massage and a hot detox-bath but it was at the bottom of the list right now. With a bang she pulled back the curtain and the strong light immediately lit up the bedroom. Squinting Nikki went into the kitchen, made herself a cup of tea and sat down on the balcony. She called her sister and chatted for half an hour and then she glanced through Sten’s prints. She didn’t find anything strange whatsoever in his relaxed mail conversations.

Curious she got started with Karl’s bunch and leaned back in the comfortable lounge chair. There must be some common thread between the gentlemen, Nikki thought convinced. After fifteen minutes she had her fears confirmed. Karl and Sten had had the same accountant as Patrik. The thoughts went in a new direction and she wondered what this discovery would mean for the investigation. Could there be a connection with Patrik’s disappearing?

Dressed in a yellow dress with shoulder straps Nikki opened the door to the guest room. She noticed that Linn had been up putting on a thin nightgown since she had checked on her during the night. She sat down carefully on the bed and stroked her childhood friend softly over her cheek. Linn opened her blue eyes and looked at Nikki a bit confused.

”Good morning, it’s only a quarter past seven so you can continue sleeping if you want.”

”Good morning, I think I fell asleep before you came back yesterday. Did you go to the harbour?”

”Yes, I was there.”

”And?” Linn pulled the sheet up to her chin and pulled her fingers through her hair.

”Nothing, we didn’t find anything.” Nikki felt guilty even though she had done her very best last night. ”We have to talk Linn. This is not working, you know it too.”

”What do you mean?” Linn looked down on the blue checked sheet and clasped her long thin fingers together.

Nikki looked at the wine bottles. ”Your drinking. You gulped down three and a half bottles yesterday. That’s not OK.”

Ashamed Linn looked at the bottles. She pulled a hand through her knotty hair and her eyes filled up with tears.

”I know”, she whispered. This was the first time she had agreed. Confessed.

”How can I help you?” Nikki stroked Linn’s arm in an attempt to comfort her but knew that it was only a half-hearted attempt.

”I don’t know.’ She sobbed and felt how the hang-over was hitting her. The room was spinning and she broke out in cold sweat. ”Do you have any Coke at home?”

”No, I don’t drink that kind of rubbish but I can make you my hang-over drink if you want?”

Linn nodded carefully and continued. ”Patrik seems to have booked me in at a clinic in central Gothenburg for when we get home. Damn it, how I hate myself.”

”You know what? It might be exactly what you need even if it sounds a bit heavy handed to me. To tell you the truth you’ll need all the support you can get because I’m afraid it’s already gone too far.” Nikki got up and left Linn with her own thoughts. Ten minutes later she came back with a bright green drink. ”Finish this, whether you like it or not.”

”I feel sick just looking at it. What the hell did you put in it?” Linn accepted the glass and looked at its content with a sceptical look.

”You don’t want to know, but at least there’s loads of chlorophyll.”

Nikki waited for Linn and knew from earlier questionings that the silence could bring out an incredible amount of confessions and answers. Finally Linn put the empty glass on the bedside table, moved higher up among the cushions and put her arms around her knees.

”Thanks, it wasn’t as awful as it seemed.” She became quiet and stared vacantly out in to the distance for a long while before slowly beginning to speak again. ”I have refused to listen to Patrik and have really denied my situation.” Linn wiped her nose with one arm and looked with regrets at her childhood friend. Her straggled hair was hanging down, almost covering her face. ”Look at me; I look like an old woman. My skin is even hanging off my body.”

”What do you want then?” Nikki bent over to get eye-contact with her friend.

”What do I want?” Linn raised her voice and sounded provoked. ”I want to get rid of the desire and the anguish tearing at my chest every bloody day. To be a good mother for the kids and a wonderful wife for my husband.” Linn was whispering now. She threw the cushions on the floor in anger and then started crying violently.

”Good, you have to want to succeed. And to confess of course…that you’re an alcoholic.”

Linn looked at Nikki with despise. ”Don’t you think I’m aware of having a problem, or?”

Nikki smiled when she recognized her friend’s fighting mood. ”Let’s fix this together but you’ll have to do the brunt of the work.”

Linn nodded and whispered through her tears. ”Thank you.”

At eight o’clock sharp Nikki stepped inside the door of the old police station in Coral Bay. She quickly greeted Katerina who was dressed in a tight red trouser-suit.

”The others are in the conference room waiting for you”, she informed Nikki.

At the same moment as Nikki entered the hot room yesterday’s events caught up with her like a smack in the face. She looked across the long table and Nikki noticed that only Daphne and Sam were present. Nervously she sat down next to her female colleague and gave Daphne a nervous enquiring look. The grimace of smile that Nikki got back didn’t make things better.
Damn it, Carlos wouldn’t be happy today and I will have to pay for it. The question is how
?

Then the door opened. Carlos limped in, sat down quietly at the top of the table and put his notebook on it. Daphne and Sam stared at the bruised, closed eye, the tape over his eye-brows and the large bruise on his Adam’s apple. Nikki felt bad and really ashamed. She let her long hair hang down in front of her face as a wall between her and Carlos. Without hesitating he caught Nikki’s gaze, pinned it down as if ready to kill. Embarrassed and with a big knot in her stomach she looked down at her lap and wondered tensely what was coming next. Her heart was beating hard and she had lost her appetite despite the generous breakfast spread prepared by Katerina. Without a word Carlos took some coffee, put two buns on his plate and acted as if nothing had happened.

”Did your wife beat you up?” Sam grinningly asked and had a big bite of his cheese-and ham sandwich.

”Shut up”, Carlos hissed and nodded at Daphne.

”Eh…it seems I’ve taken over today..ehm..Carlos can’t talk too much. I suppose that we all have some new information to share with each-other. If you start Sam I’ll update the whiteboard as we go along.”

Sam cleared his throat and shuffled some papers. ”Well, I’ve gone through the call lists. I’ve also asked Cyta for a list of what mobiles were connected to each 3G mast during these moments at the places where Sten, Karl and victim number three were found. I’ve compared the lists of the victims’ mobile numbers, read them and reread them front and back. One number is recurring, a burner phone.” He lifted up his head and looked at his colleagues’ reactions which weren’t long in coming.

”What you are saying is that the same mobile number has been at all three places where the victims were found murdered?”

Sam nodded and had a drink from the water bottle he’d brought with him. ”Yes, not when they were murdered but more or less at the same time as they are supposed to have been dumped. We take it for granted I suppose that all the victims were killed at another location to where they were found, don’t we?”

Everybody nodded in agreement.

”How can we find the owner of the burner phone?” Daphne crossed her arms over her chest and caught Sam’s gaze again.

”We can’t. If the owner doesn’t register it himself, and I don’t think he’ll be that stupid. Or she.”

”Damn it. So we have a number but no name.”

”Exactly”, Sam said while eating the rest of his sandwich.

The conference room went quiet. Previous noise like clearing of throats, ruffling with papers and pulling chairs suddenly stopped. They were sitting quietly like an obedient school class, pondering what Sam had said. Daphne was the first one to wake up from the daze and wrote down the Cypriot mobile number on the already full whiteboard.

”What I’ve also found out is that the owner of the burner phone has called Sten’s and Karl’s mobiles as well as the other way around”, Sam continued and passed on the lists to his colleagues.

”Doesn’t this indicate that both Sten and Karl knew the owner of the burner phone?” Nikki asked and was surprised that she had dared open her mouth. She who had planned to be quiet so that Carlos wouldn’t notice her.

”Could this be our offender, do you think?” Daphne added.

”I feel the owner of the burner phone is at least involved”, Sam replied and coughed. ”I drove out to Olof Stenvall’s yesterday afternoon on the bike by the way. There is something odd about him but I can’t really decide what. I also saw his Can-Am in the garage and the tire tracks match those found at Sten’s and Karl’s dumping-places. This doesn’t have to mean anything since they are common tires, but still.”

”Oh, damn it. What did Forensics’ say about Olof’s DNA by the way?” Nikki looked into Sam’s brown almond-shaped eyes.

”They didn’t find anything matching his DNA in Sten Arvidsson’s home. On the other hand they found Olof’s fingerprints among many others on the rake lying next to the sand-bunker where the headless victim was found.

”Have you seen the report from Forensics’” Daphne interrupted with surprise.

”I called Maria last night and only found out that Olof’s finger-prints were on the rake. She will fax the whole report after lunch today”, Sam answered concisely and took another sandwich.

”Hm, Olof’s finger-prints…does it mean anything?” Nikki continued and looked at her mobile’s display. ”After all he’s working at Mountain Hills…”

”Yes, but not as janitor on the court I suppose.”

”No, you’re right about that.”

”I actually asked the same question”, Sam clarified and pulled his fingers through the dark three day old beard. ”Olof literally said that he had employees taking care of the dirty work.”

”Let’s keep an eye on him. The question now is what motive he would have to murder all three?”

There was silence in the room and the group were thinking about Sam’s last question until Nikki interrupted them.

”By the way, I’ve got the call lists from my boss regarding Patrik’s mobile. There are some Cypriot numbers I need to check on. Who can help me with that?”

Everybody looked at Sam and he nodded in agreement. ”I’ll take care of it immediately. What numbers are there?”

Nikki mentioned the numbers while Sam was jotting them down in his notebook. He rolled over to the worn-out computer standing on the nearby desk. A few minutes later he was waving his notebook and joined the others at the conference table.

”OK, are you ready?” The others looked at him with expectation. ”Patrik has called four different numbers here on the island. One of them is to Petros Christous’ accounting firm and the other for an Anna Fransson at Vingresor’s. The others are to an accounting firm in Limassol and to a translation office in Nicosia.”

”Anna Fransson at Vingresor’s? But that’s...”Nikki didn’t understand a thing. What the hell did Patrik want Anna for? Or had it just been a coincidence that he had called her? ”Could I have the number so that I can call Anna immediately since we already know what connection there is between Patrik and Petros. Maybe you can call the other numbers meanwhile.” Surprised and with an uneasy feeling in her body Nikki went out on the stairs while the call went through. The morning sun was hot and she stood in the shade with a view over the shimmering sea.

”Anna Fransson, Vingresor.”

”Anna...hi it’s Nikki.”

”But Nikki, hi. It’s been a long time. How are you?”

Nikki heard how surprised Anna sounded and gave a brief answer. ”Fine, thank you. I can understand you wondering why I’m calling but I’m working with a few murder cases in Cyprus…” She didn’t get any further before she heard a shout of joy in the phone.

”Are you in Cyprus?” Anna continued, really happy and Nikki heard how she started planning what they would see and do.

”Sweetie, I don’t have time right now since I’m in the middle of some murder investigations.” Anna wouldn’t listen at all to this but started again planning what they would see and do together.”Listen carefully now and calm down a bit.” Nikki took courage and asked the difficult question she didn’t know if she would get an answer to.